Surah An-Najm (53): Read Online and Download - English Translation

Refuting the Claim of the Idolators that the Angels are Allah's Daughters

Allah the Exalted admonishes the idolators for calling the angels female names and claiming that they are Allah's daughters. Allah is far removed from what they ascribe to Him. Allah the Exalted said in another Ayah,

(And they make females the angels, who themselves are servants of the Most Gracious. Did they witness their creation Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned!)(43:19) Allah's statement here,

(But they have no knowledge thereof.) meaning, they have no correct knowledge testifying to their statements. What they say is all lies, falsehood, fake and utter atheism,

(They follow but conjecture, and verily, conjecture is no substitute for the truth.) meaning, conjecture is of no benefit and never takes the place of truth. In a Hadith recorded in the Sahih, the Messenger of Allah said,

(Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the most lying speech.)

The Necessity of turning away from the People of Misguidance

Allah's statement,

(Therefore withdraw from him who turns away from Our Reminder), means, stay away from those who turn away from the Truth and shun them,

(and desires nothing but the life of this world.) meaning, whose aim and knowledge are concentrated on this life; this is the goal of those who have no goodness in them,

(That is what they could reach of knowledge.) meaning, seeking this life and striving hard in its affairs is the best knowledge they have acquired. There is also the reported supplication:

(O Allah! Make not this life the greatest of our concerns nor the best knowledge that we can attain.) Allah's statement,

(Verily, your Lord is He, Who knows best him who goes astray from His path, and He knows best him who receives guidance.) meaning, He is the Creator of all creatures and He knows whatever benefits His servants. Allah is the One Who guides whom He wills and misguides whom He wills, and all of this indicates His power, knowledge and wisdom. Certainly, He is Just and never legislates or decrees unjustly.

Allah knows Every Matter, whether Small or Big, and He rewards Each according to His or Her Deeds

Allah asserts that He is the King and Owner of the heavens and earth and that He is independent of the need for anyone. He is the authority over His creation and rules them with justice. He created the creation in truth,

(that He may requite those who do evil with that which they have done, and reward those who do good, with what is best.) He recompenses each according to his or her deeds, good for good and evil for evil.

Qualities of the Good-doers; Allah forgives the Small Faults

Allah stated that the gooddoers are those who avoid major sins and immoral sins. They sometimes commit minor sins, but they will be forgiven these minor sins and covered from exposure, as Allah mentioned in another Ayah;

(If you avoid the great sins which you are forbidden to do, We shall expiate from you your (small) sins, and admit you to a Noble Entrance.)(4:31) Allah said here,

(Those who avoid great sins and Al-Fawahish (immoral sins) except Al-Lamam), Al-Lamam means, small faults and minor errors. Imam Ahmad recorded that Ibn `Abbas said, "I have not seen anything that resembles Al-Lamam better than the Hadith that Abu Hurayrah narrated from the Prophet ,

(Verily, Allah the Exalted has decreed for the Son of Adam his share of Zina and he will certainly earn his share. The Zina of the eye is by looking, the Zina of the tongue is by talking and the heart wishes and lusts, but the sexual organ either substantiates all this or not.)" This Hadith is recorded in the Two Sahihs. Ibn Jarir recorded that Ibn Mas`ud said, "The eyes commit Zina by looking, the lips by kissing, the hands by transgressing, the feet by walking, and the sexual organ either materializes all of this or not. When one commits sexual intercourse, he will be someone who committed Zina. Otherwise, it is Al-Lamam." Masruq and Ash-Sha`bi also held the same view. `Abdur-Rahman bin Nafi`, who is also known as Ibn Lubabah At-Ta'ifi, said, "I asked Abu Hurayrah about Allah's statement,

(except the Lamam), and he said, `It pertains to kissing, winking one's eye, looking and embracing. When the sexual organ meets the sexual organ in intercourse then Ghusl is obligatory, and that is Zina."

Encouraging Repentance and forbidding Claims of Purity for Oneself

Allah's statement,

(verily, your Lord is of vast forgiveness.) asserts that His Mercy encompasses everything, and His forgiveness entails every type of sin, if one repents,

(Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against them- selves! Despair not of the mercy of Allah: verily, Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.") (39:53) Allah said,

(He knows you well when He created you from the earth,) Allah says, `He was and still is the All-Knowing Whose knowledge encompasses your affairs, statements and all of the actions that will be committed by you, even when He created your father `Adam from the earth and took his offspring from his loin, as small as ants. He then divided them into two groups, a group destined for Paradise and a group to Hellfire,'

(and when you were fetuses in your mothers' wombs.) when He commanded the angel to record one's provisions, age, actions and if he would be among the miserable or the happy. Allah said,

(So, ascribe not purity to yourselves.) forbidding one from ascribing purity and praising himself and thinking highly of his actions,

(He knows best him who has Taqwa.) Allah said in another Ayah,

(Have you not seen those who claim sanctity for themselves. Nay, but Allah sanctifies whom He wills, and they will not be dealt with unjustly, even equal to the extent of a Fatil.) (4:49) In his Sahih, Muslim recorded that Muhammad bin `Amr bin `Ata said, "I called my daughter, Barrah (the pious one), and Zaynab bint Abu Salamah said to me, `The Messenger of Allah forbade using this name. I was originally called Barrah and he said,

(Do not ascribe purity to yourselves; Allah knows best who the pious people among you are)' They said, `What should we call her' He said,

(Call her Zaynab.)" Imam Ahmad recorded a Hadith from `Abdur-Rahman bin Abi Bakrah, from his father who said, "A man praised another man before the Prophet . The Messenger of Allah said,

(Woe to you, you have cut off the neck of your friend! (He repeated this) If one of you must praise a friend of his, let him say, "I think that so-and-so is this and that; Allah knows best about him and I will never purify anyone before Allah," if he knows his friend to be as he is describing him.)" Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah collected this Hadith. Imam Ahmad recorded that Hammam bin Al-Harith said, "A man came before `Uthman bin `Affan and praised him. Al-Miqdad bin Al-Aswad started throwing sand in the face of that man, saying, `The Messenger of Allah ordered us to throw sand in their faces when we see those who praise."' Muslim and Abu Dawud also collected this Hadith.

Chastising Those Who disobey Allah and stop giving Charity

Allah the Exalted chastises those who turn away from His obedience,

(So he (the disbeliever) neither believed nor prayed! But on the contrary, he belied and turned away!)(75:31-32),

(And gave a little, then stopped) Ibn `Abbas said, "Gave a little, then stopped giving." Similar was said by Mujahid, Sa`id bin Jubayr, `Ikrimah, Qatadah and several others. `Ikrimah and Sa`id said: "Like the case of a people who dig a well, during the course of which they find a rock preventing them from completing their work. So they say, `We are finished' and they abandon the work." Allah's statement,

(Is with him the knowledge of the Unseen so that he sees) means, does this person, who stopped giving for fear of poverty and ended his acts of charity have knowledge of the Unseen and thus knows that if he does not stop giving, his wealth will go away No. Such a person has stopped giving in charity for righteous causes and did not keep relations with kith and kin because of his miserliness, being stingy and out of fear of poverty. The Prophet said in a Hadith,

(O Bilal, spend and fear not less provisions from the Owner of the Thone.) Allah the Exalted and Most honored said,

(And whatsoever you spend of anything (in Allah's cause), He will replace it. And He is the Best of providers.)(34:39)

The Meaning of `fulfilled

Allah the Exalted said,

(Or is he not informed with what is in the Suhuf of Musa. And of Ibrahim who fulfilled), Sa`id bin Jubayr and Ath-Thawri said it means: "Conveyed all that he was ordered to convey." Ibn `Abbas said about:

(fulfilled) "He delivered all that Allah ordered him to deliver." Sa`id bin Jubayr said about:

(fulfilled), "What he was ordered." Qatadah said about:

(fulfilled), "He obeyed Allah and delivered His Message to His creatures." This is the view preferred by Ibn Jarir because it includes the statement before it and supports it. Allah said,

(And (remember) when the Lord of Ibrahim tried him with (certain) commands, which he fulfilled. He said: "Verily, I am going to make you an Imam (a leader) for mankind.")(2:124) Therefore, Ibrahim fulfilled all the commands of his Lord, stayed away from all the prohibitions, and conveyed Allah's Message in its entirety. Therefore, he is worthy of being made a leader for mankind in all of his affairs, statements and actions. Allah the Exalted said,

(Then, We have sent the revelation to you (saying): "Follow the religion of Ibrahim, a Hanif, and he was not of the idolators.")(16:123)

None shall carry the Burden of Any Other on the Day of Resurrection

Allah the Exalted explained what He has revealed in the Scripture of Ibrahim and Musa,

(That no burdened person shall bear the burden of another.) Meaning, every soul shall carry its own injustices, whether disbelief or sin, and none else shall carry its burden of sin, as Allah states

(And if one heavily laden calls another to (bear) his load, nothing of it will be lifted even though he be near of kin.)(35:18) Allah said,

(And that man can have nothing but what he does.) So just as no soul shall carry the burden of any other, the soul shall only benefit from the good that one earns for himself. As for the Hadith recorded by Muslim in the Sahih, that Abu Hurayrah said that the Messenger of Allah said,

(When a person dies, his deeds will cease except in three cases: from a righteous son who invokes Allah for him, or an ongoing charity after his death, or knowledge that people benefit from.) These three things are, in reality, a result of one's own deeds, efforts and actions. For example, a Hadith states,

(Verily, the best type of provision that one consumes is from what he himself has earned, and one's offspring are among what he has earned.) The ongoing charity that one leaves behind, like an endowment, for example, are among the traces of his own actions and deeds. Allah the Exalted said,

(Verily, We give life to the dead, and We record that which they send before (them) and their traces.)(36:12) The knowledge that one spreads among people which they are guided by is among his actions and deeds. A Hadith collected in the Sahih states,

(Whoever invites to guidance, he will earn as much reward as those who follow him, without decreasing anything out of their own rewards.) Allah said,

(And that his deeds will be seen.) meaning, on the Day of Resurrection,

(And say: "Do deeds! Allah will see your deeds, and (so will) His Messenger and the believers. And you will be brought back to the All-Knower of the unseen and the seen. Then He will inform you of what you used to do.")(9:105), Then Allah will remind you of your actions and recompense you for them in the best manner, good for good and evil for evil. Allah's statement here,

(Then he will be recompensed with a full and the best recompense.)

Some Attributes of the Lord, that He returns Man as He originated Him, and some of what He does with His Servants

Allah the Exalted said,

(And that to your Lord is the End.) meaning, the return of everything on the Day of Resurrection. Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that `Amr bin Maymun Al-Awdi said, "Once, Mu`adh bin Jabal stood up among us and said, `O Children of Awd! I am the emissary of Allah's Messenger to you; know that the Return is to Allah, either to Paradise or the Fire."' Allah's statement,

(And that it is He Who makes you laugh, and makes you weep.) means that He created in His creatures the ability to laugh or weep and the causes for each of these opposites,

(And that it is He Who causes death and gives life.) In a similar statement, Allah said,

(Who has created death and life.)(67:2) Allah said,

(And that He creates the pairs, male and female. From Nutfah when it is emitted.) as He said:

(Does man think that he will be left neglected Was he not a Nutfah Then he became an `Alaqah (something that clings); then (Allah) shaped and fashioned (him) in due proportion. And made of him two sexes, male and female. Is not He (Allah) able to give life to the dead)(75:36-40) Allah the Exalted said,

(And that upon Him is another bringing forth.) meaning, just as He first originated creation, He is able to bring it back to life, resurrecting it for the Day of Judgement,

(And that it is He Who Aghna (gives much) and Aqna (a little).) It is Allah Who gives wealth to His servants and this wealth remains with them. This means they are able to use it to their benefit, is this out of the completeness of His favor. Most of the statements of the scholars of Tafsir revolve around this meaning, such as those from Abu Salih, Ibn Jarir and others. Mujahid said that,

(Aghna) meaning: He gives wealth.

(Aqna) meaning: He gives servants. Similar was said by Qatadah. Ibn `Abbas and Mujahid said;

(Aghna) means: He granted; while,

(Aqna) means: He gave contentment.

(And that He is the Lord of Ash-Shi`ra.) Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, Qatadah and Ibn Zayd said about Ash-Shi`ra that it is the bright star, named Mirzam Al-Jawza' (Sirius), which a group of Arabs used to worship.

(And that it is He Who destroyed the former `Ad) the people of Hud. They are the descendants of `Ad, son of Iram, son of Sam, son of Nuh. As Allah the Exalted said,

(Saw you not how your Lord dealt with `Ad. Of Iram, with the lofty pillars, the like of which were not created in the land)(89:6-8) The people of `Ad were among the strongest, fiercest people and the most rebellious against Allah the Exalted and His Messenger. Allah destroyed them,

(By a furious violent wind! Which Allah imposed in them for seven nights and eight days in succession.)(69:6-7) Allah's statement,

(And Thamud. He spared none), declares that He destroyed them all and spared none of them,

(And the people of Nuh aforetime.) before `Ad and Thamud,

(Verily, they were more unjust and more rebellious and transgressing.) more unjust in disobeying Allah than those who came after them,

(And He destroyed the overthrown cities.) meaning, the cities (of Sodom and Gomorrah) to which Prophet Lut was sent. Allah turned their cities upside down over them and sent on them stones of Sijjil. Allah's statement that whatever has covered it, has covered it, is like the case with the stones of Sijjil that He sent on them,

(And We rained on them a rain (of torment). And how evil was the rain of those who had been warned!)(26:173) Allah said,

(Then which of the graces of your Lord will you doubt) meaning, `which of Allah's favors for you, O man, do you doubt,' according to Qatadah. Ibn Jurayj said that the Ayah,

(Then which of the graces of your Lord will you doubt), is directed towards the Prophet saying: "O Muhammad!" However, the first ex- planation is better, and it is the meaning that Ibn Jarir preferred.